Pakistan hosting record four events as UN Commission on Women’s Status opens

UNITED NATIONS : Pakistan is set to organise record four side-events dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the coming week as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) holds its annual session at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

“We will continue our diplomatic activism in CSW’s 63rd session,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told APP ahead of one of the biggest assemblies of countries at the UN.

This is the second biggest event in UN General Assembly’s calendar, the Pakistani envoy said, and added: “It is always a vibrant expression of solidarity for gender equality and women’s empowerment.”

Over 9,000 delegates from around the globe are taking part in the conference, which is a record. They include representatives of member states, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world.

The theme this year is social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Pakistan’s one person delegation to the Commission will be led by Khawar Mumtaz, chairperson of the National Commission of Women.

The side-events Pakistan is holding with Turkey, Qatar, Iran, Indonesia, Canada and Gambia, among others, are aimed at providing a platform “to inform, learn and share,” Ambassador Lodhi said.

Other than the four events Pakistan is hosting, it is also participating in a fifth event as well.

Ambassador Lodhi said CSW offers a unique opportunity to showcase Pakistan’s wide ranging domestic reform and female empowerment agenda, share best practices and to also learn from others.

Meanwhile, speaking at an event ahead of the CSW session, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “Gender equality is fundamentally a question of power”, adding that a still male-dominated world has “ignored, silenced and oppressed women for centuries – even millennia.”